[lbo-talk] Politics vs the DP

[wrobert at uci.edu]

> On 6/15/2011 8:12 PM, wrobert at uci.edu wrote:
>
>>      This seems remarkably naive, ignoring the powerful institutional
>> gatekeeping devices that exist between the decision making structures
>> of the parties and the average individual who registers to be a part
>> of a particular party.  Any effort to change the democratic party
>> strikes me as largely futile.
>
> That's exactly what people say when they think about taking part in
> activism. "I'm just one person, the system is bigger than me, there's no
> point in trying." The whole idea of being a radical with a sense of
> history is understanding the reality that in the right circumstances
> people *have* changed things through activism *despite* the seemingly
> insurmountable obstacles. Read a history of, say, the Democratic Party
> in Detroit in the 30's. You know what it was like in 1930? It was barely
> liberal, much less radical. By 1948 it was controlled by socialists.

RW: They just haven't changed it by trying to reform the democratic party.


>>    If there is anything to learn from the
>> Popular Front, it's the CPs collaboration in a variety of civic and
>> political groups that had far more to do with the creation of a
>> historical block than the formal engagement with the democratic party.
>>   Perhaps more accurately, the extent that the latter occurred was
>> dependent on the former.
>
> The last sentence here is *identical* to the argument of the post you're
> criticizing.

Not quite, my argument is that the success of the model relied on the
creation of mass movements linked into struggles that tended towards the
non-parliamentary or even extra-parliamentary.  As that threat grew, there
was an effort to bring these structures into the dp, which had a
neutralizing effect.  The effect that the Party had was precisely in the
sense that it wasn't trying to reform the dp.


>>        On the other hand, the previous argument doesn't take away the
>> possibility of working with the various activists who remain
>> committed to the democratic party.  This was certainly true of our
>> recently formed caucus, focused on reforming our local, UAW 2865,
>> and I could see it working with any number of concrete projects,
>> such as opposing the various occupations or other practical reform
>> issues.  However, these projects all operate outside of the
>> democratic party, aka 'the roach motel of the left.'
>
> These projects operate outside the Democratic Party? As opposed to what?
> The DP is an elections vehicle. If it's not related to an election, it
> takes place "outside the DP," by definition.
>
The point is that working class power is created by those actions not
getting involved in the convoluted battles of the democratic party.  At
this point, putting much effort into the elections is largely a waste of
time.

robert wood